Evan Lockridge
Evan Lockridge is a freelance journalist and radio talent. Born in 1966 in Atlanta, Georgia, he's a self-proclaimed "communications junkie" since the age of 17. Currently he focuses on covering the trucking industry for Heavy Duty Trucking magazine and TruckingInfo.com as senior contributing editor, where his wife, Deborah, is editor in chief. He has been covering trucking since 1991. He started his business, Evan E. Lockridge Communications in 1996, after a two-year stint in television as a photographer, where he also provides video service, voiceovers and audio production services. He previously worked for SiriusXM Satellite Radio on Road Dog Trucking Radio, Channel 106 as host of The Lockridge Report.1 He also anchored and wrote daily trucking newscasts for the channel, SiriusXM Trucking News, until the summer of 2012 when he decided to cut back. Lockridge still fills in as anchor for the SiriusXM Trucking News, when current anchor Jim Park is out. Previous to working for SiriusXM, Lockridge produced and anchored daily trucking newscasts syndicated to AM-FM radio stations across the United States under the banners of RoadStar Radio News, Overdrive Trucking News and Expediter News Break. He also served in various capacities with RoadStar, Truck Sales & Leasing, Truckstop Travel Plaza and Overdrive magazines—all dedicated to different segments of the trucking industry. Lockridge started with Sirius and the channel in 2005, producing and anchoring the trucking news and Interstate Alerts, reports of road construction zones along U.S. Interstates that can cause truckers delays. He quit doing Interstate Alerts in 2007 and increased his role by also anchoring the morning trucking news on the channel that goes under the name Sirius Trucking News Morning Report. The morning reports aired twice an hour during The Loading Dock with co-hosts Mark Willis and Elizabeth Walsh, weekdays from 6–11 a.m., Eastern Time. During this time he also served as substitute co-host on The Loading Dock when either Willis, Walsh or both were out. This addition of him doing the news updates in the mornings eventually led to him writing and anchoring all the newscasts that were heard on the channel, which aired five days a week In February 2008, Sirius gave Lockridge his own two-hour show, The Lockridge Report, aired between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, with repeats on the weekends at the same time. The Lockridge Report was one of the few shows on the channel to survive when Sirius merged with XM Satellite Radio a little more than a year later. The show, like all of the others on the channel, had its own identity with The Lockridge Report, focusing more on news and issues than the other shows . This was due to SiriusXM playing up Lockridge's credentials as an award-winning trucking journalist. Guests included an array of federal and state government officials, including members of Congress, trucking industry officials and many others. Fridays on the broadcast became well known for "Safety Valve Friday" when no topic was off limits to callers who could also vent their gripes. Lockridge stepped down from the show at the end of 2012, publicly saying he was doing so to care for his parents, though rumors were circulating that he had grown tired of broadcasts. His father, Donald B. Lockridge, died shortly afterwards, near the end of January 2013. Lockridge is the recipient of several national awards for his trucking writing including from the Alabama Media Professionals, American Society of Business Publication Editors and American Business Media, including the coveted Grand Neal Award in 2001, considered the Pulitzer Prize of the business media . Referencesedit # Jump up^ "The Lockridge Report". sirius.com. Retrieved 13 December 2010.